Sweet Potato Stuffed Pasta Shells

Ok so I’ll admit it – I was worried about this recipe.

Some backstory, my last CSA of the season (sob!) came this week and included a small amount of sweet potatoes, about a pound’s worth.

I knew I was going to use them as the “featured ingredient” in whatever dinner I made, plus I definitely wanted to keep this vegetarian. Ideally, I was also still trying to keep it somewhat fresh and unexpected. And what’s more unexpected than stuffing it in jumbo pasta shells right? (And if it’s not, shh – let me have my moment).

Plus with the roasting kick that I continue to be on it just seemed to make sense.

As I was making this, I definitely had moments of “Hmm…hope this turns out alright” reinforced by my husband’s repeated questions of, “You’re doing what? You’re using what as the filling?”

When we first sat down to eat it was a total fingers crossed type of deal (as in, we really didn’t want to have to go out or heat up canned soup) but this dish works, like amazingly works.

It’s totally delicious and I’m not exaggerating. By roasting them all together then mashing them brings out the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes, garlic and onions (plus you only need to use one pan, yay). Pair this sweet savoriness as the counterpoint to the acidity of the tomato sauce and round it all out with the salty creaminess of the variety of cheeses and you end up with something truly amazing.

I mean I was completely ready to go out to eat, but when my husband suggests that I make a dish for guests, I know it’s something good.

I’ll admit this meal is a bit carb heavy (hello sweet potatoes and pasta!) so I highly recommend serving a veggie heavy side salad to really round it out and a vegetable laden pasta sauce for the top would be ideal.

Tip – This recipe make a total of 20 stuffed shells for 4 servings of 5 shells each. You could easily stretch this out to at least 5 servings by just bumping up the size of the side salad. In fact, the next time I make it I’d probably make 5 servings out of it anyway, it’s a lot of pasta.

Mash together sweet potatoes and garlic. (I actually ended up using my potato ricer for the sweet potatoes and garlic to make it extra fluffy). Mince onions finely and mix in. Season with Italian seasoning, nutmeg, smoked paprika, crushed red pepper and salt and pepper. Stir in feta, cream cheese, half of the provolone and Parmesan. Taste and adjust any seasoning (more Italian seasoning? more nutmeg? more crushed red pepper?).

Using a spoon or pipping bag, fill stuffed shells with sweet potato mix placing each completed shell in a baking pan. Spoon pasta sauce over shells and top with remaining provolone (or if you're like me and only have sliced provolone, dice the slices into small squares and sprinkle on top).

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes until heated through and cheese is melty. Serve and enjoy!

7 comments

Holy Sweet Potato! That sounds AMAZING! I am always nervous when trying a new dish, but I would be sitting by the oven waiting for them to finish bragging on what an amazing meal I was about to serve! Really, REALLY well done!Ann recently posted..Island Beef Stew

I always love how incrediably creative you are with your CSA box. We do something similar but they deliver it year round, in the winter they do receive stuff from farther away but they are much more careful then the grocery stores! Plus the veggies are much fresher like the CSA box! This looks delish and I have some sweet potatoes I have been debating what to do with! Just might have to give this a go! Have a wonderful week!Serena Bakes Simply From Scratch recently posted..Turtle Squares

Oh I do hope you give it a shot. It was completely surprising to me how delicious it was. For some reason it just seemed weird to put mashed sweet potatoes into pasta shells but completely worked. I looked into some of those year round ones (we have Green Bean Delivery) but there’s a minimum of $35 required weekly and with just my husband and I it’s a bit too much. I’ll definitely be looking more into it once we have kids.